According to this news source, Michigan Department of Natural Resources agents are forcing farmers to shoot their piglets due to a new ruling labeling the pigs an invasive species. Found it on Drudge, but I can't vouch for NaturalNews. Never heard of them. Of course, I'd never heard of Barack Obama until 2007, either.

Farmer forced to shoot his own baby piglets in cold blood, screams the headline, in Hearstian manner.

If true, this reminds me of FDR's Hog Reduction Program of 1933, one of his first "accomplishments." Two billion pounds of pork, mostly piglets and sows, were slaughtered to artificially prop up prices, even as many folk went hungry. Who did this help? Big Pig. Who did this hurt? Your grandparents.

These are the things statists do. I shall not mention 5 year plans or the Ukrainian famine. But the Party of the Common Man has been riddled with bloodless technocrats for a hundred years. People with no real life experience, who don the green eyeshade, sip their absinthe, and decide your fate. As someone recently said, they sure broke a lot of eggs. Where are the fucking omelets?

Why do Democrats so love to kill things? After they weren't allowed to lynch black people anymore they turned to foetuses. Now a piglet slaughter redux. There's always something, or someone they want to kill. And I'm not saying the chairman of the Michigan DNR is a Democrat. I'm just saying he's been in the ironworkers union for decades, and was an AFL-CIO lobbyist in Washington for years. And Jennifer Grandholm appointed him. Coincidence, probably.

I'm beginning to understand why liberals like high-speed rail so much. Now if they can just get that damned stubborn green energy to decently fire some ovens, why, they'd have something once they got us to wherever those trains are going. When you see a map that shows a trillion dollar boondoggle high-speed rail going to nowhere, don't believe it. There will be something there, all right. How many windmills does it take to incinerate a 180 pound man anyway, do you reckon?

I'm told the ultimate Green boondoogle, Solyndra, was originally called Soylent. But I can't verify that. Nor can I verify that NaturalNews article. Perhaps I shall call one Dave Tuxberry, unwilling killer of his own pigs, and smoke this out. Smoke it out like a Virginia ham.

"As someone recently said, they sure broke a lot of eggs. Where are the fucking omelettes?"

"Why do Democrats so love to kill things? After they weren't allowed to lynch black people anymore they turned to foetuses. Now a piglet slaughter redux. There's always something, or someone they want to kill."

"How many windmills does it take to incinerate a 180 pound man anyway, do you reckon?"

"I'm told the ultimate Green boondoogle, Solyndra, was originally called Soylent."

This WOULD BE a very disturbing article, if it were only true. A tiny bit of research into the real story indicates that the slaughtered pigs were not domestic pigs, but feral hogs. They were not being farmed for food, but raised for hunters to shoot.

Here in Texas, we have a huge problem with feral hogs, and some misguided souls intentionally spread them so that there will be more to hunt. They are breeding faster than we can shoot them, and it is now legal to shoot them from helicopters in Texas.

Sorry but you are wrong. It is accurate and they are not going only after hogs at game ranches (bad enough) but also private farms that raise heritage breed hogs.

Farmers are being required to send in pictures of their hogs and the DNR is deciding one by one if they fall under this overly broad rule or not.

Here in Texas, we have a huge problem with feral hogs,

We aren't Texas. We don't have a feral hog problem. And we don't need the DNR telling us what to raise. If they were concerned with feral pigs the DNR would restrict the fatwa only to pigs out side a fenced area. They have refused to do so.

The reason for the slaughter is two fold. One is to shut down private hunting preserves. That is because the DNR makes their money from hunts on public land. The private hunting hurts their revenue stream. The second reason is that they are trying to drive the small farms out of business. Small farmers usually raise a exotic breed of pigs.

Free Republic is a sacred place. Please don't allow yourselves to be trolled.

I won't that is why I am correcting you.

6
posted on 04/17/2012 1:02:10 PM PDT
by Harmless Teddy Bear
(In most cases, revenge is not a good thing. In other cases, it's the only thing.)

Please note that Velociman note his skepticism of the story in at least 3 places. His labeling Drudge’s headline as “Hearstian” gave me that clue.

For my part, I am well aware of Texas’ feral hog problem as well as California’s. And I wouldn’t want to see one in Michigan either.

OTOH, you cannot tell me that historically speaking such rulings could not be used as an excuse to more Draconian intrusions into farms where some disgruntled employee called in a lying allegation about his former boss now can you?

And you have to admit that our Govt under FDR DID precisely the same thing to DOMESTIC hogs, right? How many know that? Percentage wise, how many Americans know that history and to the famine it led to?

I agree trolling is wrong. If the farm in question is legitimately raising feral hogs, then that is a good use of the law. I wonder how much press bad use of the law will bring if allegedly phony ones like this one garner press coverage?

We here at FR need to be skeptical about all the “news” don’t we?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad you alerted me to the other side of the story. But I wouldn’t call it trolling now that you have offered some balance. It is now more informative. And Velociman’s quips are still good in their own rite.

Thanks to both for responses. Looks like there is a lot more to this story on both sides. I agree that Michigan is not Texas. I am also concerned about over-eager government intrusion into private activities on private property.

Was not accusing any one of trolling on FR, but the original story is certainly over sensationalized.

10
posted on 04/17/2012 1:24:23 PM PDT
by tpmintx
(Problem: The people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who VOTE for a living.)

You are welcome. The key to what they are doing is the fact that they will not limit the ban to hogs that are outside a fenced area. They have been asked and they have refused.

You can bet that the pig farmers are not just letting their pigs wander off. Even one pig is a substantial chunk of change for a small farmer.

The really ironic part is that the way they have written the rule all pigs qualify, including the ones that are not heritage breeds. They say they don't and then say all hybrids are to be wiped out and that is what all pigs are.

It is like saying that this order will not apply to humans but hominids of all types are to be wiped out.

12
posted on 04/17/2012 1:32:21 PM PDT
by Harmless Teddy Bear
(In most cases, revenge is not a good thing. In other cases, it's the only thing.)

The funny thing is that out of all the hunters I know only one who even knows someone who has seen a feral hog.

There are a few out there but not in any great number. Possibly the condom using cougars are keeping their numbers down.

Any hog that gets out is going to go feral pretty quick. It is their nature. They are a bit like cats in that respect.

Which is why the rule makes no sense. A lightly haired hog out side the fence is going to produce far more damage then any of the hogs named will do when they are kept fenced.

The logical thing if they were worried about feral hogs is to make the rule read that any hog running loose is fair game. Any fenced hog is not. See how easy that was?

When they refuse to do that it is obvious that they are up to something other then their stated intention.

The DNR is Michigan has been acting strangely for the past decade or so. A few years back the DNR was forced to admit that there were indeed cougars in lower Michigan. It is kind of hard to argue with a body and a expert testimony that the horse was killed by one. They immediately declared the cougar was endangered and must be left alone and they weren't breeding.

Really? What are they doing? Using birth control?

14
posted on 04/17/2012 1:59:12 PM PDT
by Harmless Teddy Bear
(In most cases, revenge is not a good thing. In other cases, it's the only thing.)

feral - previously domesticated animal either abandoned or escaped from captivity that resorts to the wild to survive.

By definition a pig behind the farmer’s fence that is fed and cared for cannot be arbitrarily declared “feral” no matter what the breed. The DNR’s definition of unapproved pigs pretty much describes all pigs but the pink factory pigs.

Disagree totally that this story was “over sensationalized” - it hit a very visceral cord in me.

Don’t you just love it that they don’t indemnify the farmer if the DNR comes in and kills his pigs? “We only indemnify for livestock. Once [Director Stokes] declared these as in invasive species — sorry, we don’t indemnify for invasive species.” All because someone decided that the standard meaning of “feral” could be played with at whim in order to wipe out the small competitors of, as Velociman put it, “Big Pig.”

I know how people want to run away from arguments that sound slippery slope like, but come on folks. How many once slipper slope arguments that are now tumbling down the hill do you need to have lived to have seen before you figure out how powermad our tyranny has become? Thus: give the govt bureaucrats power to define AT WILL like this, and tomorrow YOU could be declared something subhuman that would allow them to eliminate you.

Slippery Slope indeed - this is over the cliff in my mind, but then I do tend to see grave injustices in black and white terms. When ol’Saxophone Bubba quibbled about the meaning of “is” , we were in big trouble. The tyrrants are redefining words at breakneck speed and deny their true intentions. I am sending the Bakers some money because they will need it for their defense fund. What else can I do?

Oh, it’s definitely over the hill with regards to small farmers, their animals, and the 4th Amendment.

What would be viewed as slippery slope was my closing sentence. “Yeah, right. They’re gonna eventually getting around to defining humans as less than human? Get out of here you madman.” That sort of resorting to slippery slope denial. “It can’t happen here.” — the “Progressive,” Sinclair Lewis

The DNRs definition of unapproved pigs pretty much describes all pigs but the pink factory pigs.

A pig living behind a farmer's fence, fed by said farmer, is not a gd FERAL pig, no matter what it looks like.

Wild boars have very small litters, 2-4. Feral pigs farrow 8-12 regularly. Those numbers are why they increase so rapidly and are so destructive. Domestic pigs go feral very quickly, within one generation.

28
posted on 04/17/2012 11:30:41 PM PDT
by Kenny Bunk
(So, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts can't figure out if Obama is a Natural Born Citizen?)

We are already there: AGW deniers, real Christians, Patriots, to name a few - all are dangerous and need to be culled into FEMA camps because of the risk of contagion from their “mental illness” - get on board Obama express or else!

Here in Michigan there is not a big problem with feral hogs. You are allowed to hunt them. Last year only 42 were reported killed. This isn’t about feral pigs. If you listened to Mr.Baker’s testimony and saw his video of his farm, you can readily see none of these critters are trying to escape. The loss of money for escaped livestock is significant, so these farmers are very conscientious. This reeks of something more nefarious when it makes no sense at all.

Sioux, in my travels about the fruited plain, I meet many Michiganders, none of whom look to me as if they were about to let so much as a single strip of bacon go feral on them.

Feral hogs are wreaking havoc in Europe, though. The problem there is "le cochanglier" that is a half-breed wild boar/domestic cross. They ... unlike the pure wild boar, breed like flies, and are tearing up crops all over Provence.

Perhaps they could be redomesticated and trained to frighten Muslims.

31
posted on 04/18/2012 4:34:08 PM PDT
by Kenny Bunk
(So, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts can't figure out if Obama is a Natural Born Citizen?)

Sioux, in my travels about the fruited plain, I meet many Michiganders, none of whom look to me as if they were about to let so much as a single strip of bacon go feral on them.

Feral hogs are wreaking havoc in Europe, though. The problem there is "le cochanglier" that is a half-breed wild boar/domestic cross. They ... unlike the pure wild boar, breed like flies, and are tearing up crops all over Provence.

Perhaps they could be redomesticated and trained to frighten Muslims.

32
posted on 04/18/2012 4:34:58 PM PDT
by Kenny Bunk
(So, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts can't figure out if Obama is a Natural Born Citizen?)

Hell no! The froggies will shoot and eat anything that moves. They have pretty heavy duty gun restrictions, but they also appreciate fine weapons. Cochangliers? Open season, ma cherie! Particularly if you know ... and pay ... the farmers.

www.joursdechasse.com

They take to the woods ... of which there are quite a lot ... in really cute little outfits, too!

34
posted on 04/18/2012 5:21:05 PM PDT
by Kenny Bunk
(So, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts can't figure out if Obama is a Natural Born Citizen?)

Hell no! The froggies will shoot and eat anything that moves. They have pretty heavy duty gun restrictions, but they also appreciate fine weapons. Cochangliers? Open season, ma cherie! Particularly if you know ... and pay ... the farmers.

www.joursdechasse.com

They take to the woods ... of which there are quite a lot ... in really cute little outfits, too!

35
posted on 04/18/2012 5:21:21 PM PDT
by Kenny Bunk
(So, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts can't figure out if Obama is a Natural Born Citizen?)

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